Archive for the ‘Roy Kinch’ tag

To any gearhead, the names of both Bill Burke and Mickey Thompson are synonymous with speed. Yet they were both also noted innovators, and in the fall of 1952 they collaborated on one of the most beautiful fiberglass sports cars the post-war world had ever seen, the Atlas Swallow.

Burke was into hot rodding back in the late 1930s and thus was heavily involved in the pre-war lakes speed scene. He frequently appeared in Throttle, the first automobile enthusiast magazine published in America, and in the March 1941 issue, Burke is shown in a photograph officially becoming president of the Road Rebels club. He was at the beginning of the hot rodding movement, well before it exploded in the post-war years.

Thompson was also a record setter, but a bit younger than Burke. When Burke was shown in Throttle, Mickey was just 13 years old, but his time would come.

Burke was best known for his introduction of the famed belly tank streamliner at various dry lakes locations in 1946. By the close of the same year, he had already sold his tank to Howard Wilson and Phil Remington, and was working on his next tank, a larger one that would be rear-engined and ultimately named Sweet 16. It would be in this very tank that Burke and friend Don Francisco would be recognized as having built and run the world’s fastest hot rod with a two-way average of 151.085 MPH in July of 1949.

Build it and build it good; Burke and his friends did this each and every time. Throughout his life, if you asked Bill about what he had accomplished, he would always focus on what he was working on, or on his future plans. It’s like that with these guys. They didn’t dwell on the past – they focused on the future.